Richard E Grant names his four favourite movies
When Richard E Grant landed his first film role in 1987, he was perhaps surprised to watch it become a cult classic. The British comedy Withnail and I saw the actor appear alongside Paul McGann as a pair of unemployed wannabe actors who spend more time drinking than actually getting anywhere with their lives.
The film marked Grant’s entry into the industry, and his unforgettable screen presence and easy knack for comedy made him quite the star. The actor channelled his own experience into the role, telling Vanity Fair, “It made me laugh out loud, it was so brilliantly written. Even the stage directions were hilarious. I had also been unemployed for nine months, too, so it was the best preparation I could have had for playing an embittered unemployed actor.” Yet, as someone who abstains from alcohol, his convincing portrayal of drunkenness was a sign of his brilliance as an actor.
He went on to appear in a variety of films from that point, ranging from How to Get Ahead in Advertising to LA Story, Henry & June, and The Age of Innocence. Proving his knack for period dramas, thrillers, comedies, and romance, Grant has become a well-known star, even earning an Academy Award nomination for Can You Ever Forgive Me? in 2019.
But what are Grant’s favourite movies of all time? The ones that made him one to be an actor? In an interview with Letterboxd, the actor used up three of his four choices on The Godfather trilogy, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The actor didn’t elaborate, but his face said it all. The first two movies in the series are widely considered some of the greatest movies of all time, although the third film, released in 1990, has divided opinion for decades.
While the first two are often seen as perfect films, changing Hollywood with their epic portrayals of violence and family, subsequently kick-starting the modern gangster genre, The Godfather Part III has often been criticised, mainly due to the disastrous performance given by a young Sofia Coppola. Still, it appears that Grant wasn’t exactly put off by her divisive role as Mary Corleone, classing the film as one of his all-time favourites. The actor even got to work with Coppola in 1992, appearing in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which is widely considered to be one of the filmmaker’s last truly good films.
His final pick was The Sound of Music, released in 1965, a beloved musical very loosely inspired by Maria von Trapp’s memoir The Story of the Trapp Family Singers. Directed by Robert Wise, who notably edited Citizen Kane, the film is noted as one of the greatest musicals of all time, full of classic hits like ‘Maria’, ‘My Favorite Things’, ‘Do-Re-Mi’, and ‘So Long, Farewell’.
The actor once shared his early memories of watching the musical performed live in an article for St Regis Magazine, which is perhaps where his love of the story comes from. “My twelfth birthday present from my father was a family ‘cultural injection trip’ to Europe to make up for the isolation of living in the smallest country in the southern hemisphere. It was incredible: Aida in Rome, the ruins in Pompeii, The Sound of Music in Salzburg, and in London, Hair, Oliver, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Mame, starring Ginger Rogers.”
